Relhan Collection : 147 SE view of Madeley Manor house, Staffs

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Copy of an engraving</p><p>1800</p><p>This is a copy of an engraving for Robert Plot’s <i>Natural History of Staffordshire (1686), </i>entitled by Relhan ‘<i>South East Prospect of Madeley Manor House in the County of Stafford the Residence of John Offley Esq</i>r<i> 1686 whose Daughter Katherine Married William Willys Esq</i>r<i> youngest Brother of Sir Tho</i>s<i> Willys Bar</i>t<i> of Fen Ditton Cambridgeshire</i>.’ To this he adds ‘R.R. del[ineavit]1800’ at the foot, even though it was a copy. The confusingly-named Madeley Old Hall is the Tudor successor to the medieval Madeley Old Hall, which is now a ruin. Relhan’s Tudor Madeley Manor house is a black and white Elizabethan house and is now a hotel. Built in the late 1500s, it is a timber-framed building with plaster infill standing on a sandstone plinth, with considerable later additions and alterations, mostly of late C19 and C20. Originally cruciform in shape with projecting gabled wings, each of 2 framed bays, it has stone fireplaces on the ground floor, several C17 doors and on the first floor a reputed priest's hole. It has a massive double-purlin roof with collar beams and S windbraces. The artist was Michael Burghers (c.1647/8 – 1727), a Dutch illustrator whose career was mostly in England where he was commissioned to create maps, estate plans, and illustrations of stately houses.</p><p>National Heritage List for England</p></p>